Friday, January 11, 2013

January 11

A 16-year-old was in critical condition Thursday night after a fellow student interrupted a first-period class at Taft Union High School southwest of Bakersfield, confronted him by name and fired a round from a 12-gauge shotgun into his upper body.

The assailant, also 16, tried to shoot a second student and missed before a science teacher was able to talk him down, apparently taking the shotgun as the other students fled from the classroom through a door.

Police officers arrived after the teacher had disarmed the assailant and took the teenager into custody. They seized the shotgun.

The teacher, Ryan Heber, was struck in the head by a pellet but was not seriously injured and refused treatment, authorities said.

"If it weren't for this teacher and his quick response, we don't know what would have happened," Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said.

Other reports I saw said that the kid had pockets full of shells so who knows how many lives Heber saved.

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Unicorn search continues

The Obama Administration keeps trying to do some Inaugural "outreach" by asking a fundamentalist conservative megachurch pastor to give the benediction. In 2008, bigot Rick Warren performed the least important part of the ceremony. Unfortunately, in the intervening four years, Warren's haterade has become even less palatable than it was. So, this year's Warren doppelganger has backed outbecause he gave a sermon advocating pray-away-the-gay therapy in the 90′s.

The Inaguration Committee member tasked with making excuses and apologies said that they didn't know that they had hired a bigot, and, furthermore, the next person they hire will have "beliefs [that] reflect this administration's vision of inclusion and acceptance for all Americans."

Good luck finding that Yeti. Almost by definition, a fundamentalist conservative megachurch pastor is someone who's given one or many bigoted anti-gay sermons in the past. That's unfortunate but not deadly to their prospects as the giver of the benediction. Non-fundamentalist, liberal, non-megachurch-going, perhaps atheist Democrats would be willing to forgive the past if the fundamentalist conservative megachurch pastor would renouce his previous position on homosexuality. But he won't. Here's what the latest asshole said:

Due to a message of mine that has surfaced from 15-20 years ago, it is likely that my participation, and the prayer I would offer, will be dwarfed by those seeking to make their agenda the focal point of the inauguration. Clearly, speaking on this issue has not been in the range of my priorities in the past fifteen years. Instead, my aim has been to call people to ultimate significance as we make much of Jesus Christ.

Translation: God still hates the gays, I just don't want to talk about it. And fuck those homos for pointing it out.

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The poster-boy for far stricter gun control than we've ever had in this country. James Yeager, CEO of two companies with names that are variations of "Tactical Response," companies that provide training to police departments, and he is a former police chief - posted a youtube rant on Wednesday in which he threatened to "start killing people" if President Obama used executive authority to ban assault weapons. He thought better of his rant and took it down the next day, but not before the SPLC snagged it.

Remember when the Hansons and the Palins were all smiles at the wedding of Track and Britta? That was in May, 2011. Three months later, the newlyweds had a daughter, and then, in December 2012, Track filed for divorce. Ah, the stuff of which reality shows are made of.

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Seriously, trying to explain people of color to the Republican party is like, well, you know...

I mean, how much chutzpah does it take for a political faction that looks like 50% Off Day at a Brooks Brothers outlet to chide an African American president for not making enough racially diverse nominations for his second term Cabinet? And don't forget, this is a party that had protested Susan Rice's nomination for Secretary of State before Obama had even made the nomination.

And, as Joan Walsh had recently pointed out on MSNBC, if the Cabinet nominations uncomfortably remind the Senate Republicans of themselves, they have only themselves to blame.

Remember back in April, when the Secret Service got in trouble because it was not only hiring hookers, but refusing to pay them? They were not even being scrupulous about their unscrupulous deeds!

A bunch of people got fired, and everybody forgot and moved onto the next national security crisis, and then Benghazi, probably, and the election, and then still Benghazi, and… oh, nevermind. Anyway, turns out that CIA hooker? She was hired by the DEA. I KNOW. READ MORE »

Sorry, no. Gun owners are nothing like nonviolent anti-segregation civil rights activists. In fact, it was the predecessors of paleoreactionary conservatives like Ted Nugent who forced Rosa Parks and African-Americans to be second-class citizens.

"The National Rifle Association of America is made up of over 4 million moms and dads, daughters and sons, who are involved in the national conversation about how to prevent a tragedy like Newtown from ever happening again. We attended today's White House meeting to discuss how to keep our children safe and were prepared to have a meaningful conversation about school safety, mental health issues, the marketing of violence to our kids and the collapse of federal prosecutions of violent criminals.

We were disappointed with how little this meeting had to do with keeping our children safe and how much it had to do with an agenda to attack the Second Amendment. While claiming that no policy proposals would be "prejudged," this Task Force spent most of its time on proposed restrictions on lawful firearms owners – honest, taxpaying, hardworking Americans. It is unfortunate that this Administration continues to insist on pushing failed solutions to our nation's most pressing problems. We will not allow law-abiding gun owners to be blamed for the acts of criminals and madmen. Instead, we will now take our commitment and meaningful contributions to members of congress of both parties who are interested in having an honest conversation about what works – and what does not." The NRA's statement in response to Biden's task force

Preventing people like Adam Lanza from attaining semiautomatic firearms will absolutely keep our children safe — far more than banning Call of Duty video games, and they know it.

Here's why the assault weapons ban of 1994-2004 didn't quite work as promised: because groups like the NRA and its allies in Congress watered down the law and created gigantic loopholes that pretty much doomed it from the start. But I suspect it won't happen this time. It's obvious that Biden isn't taking seriously any of the NRA's usual menu of right-wing bumper sticker crapola and red herring tangents.